Rotting
by Lain Fyrs
Summary: Together they grew, trying to find some meaning to themselves. Where Voldemort ended, Tom began. She followed him all the way.


**Summary: Together they grew, trying to find some meaning to themselves. Where Voldemort ended, Tom began. She followed him all the way.**

**I wrote this instead of the next chapter of my story. Do no judge me on that.**

**Note: This story contains small amounts of violence, swearing and death. It has an OC, but not in a way that most are.**

**Disclaimer: Harry Potter and its characters belong to the goddess that is J.K. Rowling. I do not own anything except the original character. **

**-Rotting-**

"Slytherin!"

The thin, black haired boy stepped down from the platform, walking calmly towards a clapping table. He sat down at an empty chair beside the other first years, cracking a half-smile as the older students shook his hand. The rest of the waiting students were sorted without his notice, as none joined his table.

The chatter in the hall escalated in volume until the headmaster stood.

Dark blue eyes wandered away from the old man giving the speech, his ears quickly turning his words into an unintelligent mumble. Scanning the staff table, he stopped momentarily on a tall, auburn haired man with a beard, recognizing him as the teacher who had come to him over the summer. His gaze hardened when icy blue eyes met his own, before motioning back to the headmaster.

Sighing, he turned back to the old man, quickly letting his eyes drift away to look over at the watching students.

He stopped on each of the house tables, right there and then deciding on his opinions of each group. The members of his own were predominantly pompous looking rich kids, some looking just a little too well fed. The next one with blue lining on their collars – Ravenclaws, they were called – looked as if the majority of the students would have books permanently attacked to their faces. He laughed mentally when he caught sight of several of them with textbooks sitting in their laps.

He simply stopped at the Hufflepuff table for a split second, before turning away, uninterested. A frown finally caressed his face when he looked at the farthest table. It was filled with a large assortment of cheerful looking students, most of which looking like they figured they could make their way through school with their brawn instead of their brains. He couldn't help but lift an eyebrow as he caught sight of a group of distinctly red-haired children sitting together.

About to turn back to the headmaster, he stopped as he caught sight of a pair of eyes staring across the room just as he had.

Visibly older than he was, but perhaps only by a year or so, she sat at the Ravenclaw table ignoring the long and boring speech. She was scanning the ends of the tables where the new students sat, studying them like he had been doing moments before. Her eyes narrowed when the group of red-heads laughed at one of the old man's pathetic jokes, before drifting towards where he sat. They caught each other's gaze momentarily, and she shared a small smile towards him before continuing on her search for something interesting to watch.

The headmaster ended his speech and food appeared on the tables, greeted by the clatter of forks being knocked against plates.

Eating slowly, he listened to the other first years introduced themselves and bragged about their families. He found himself staring back towards where the girl sat. Sitting like he was, not involved in any of the conversations around her, while she ate very little.

His head snapped back to his table as a hand touched his shoulder.

"Abraxas Malfoy. And yours?" A blond boy sitting next to him rudely asked him while extending a bony hand. He gingerly shook it before turning his body to face him properly. "Tom, Tom Marvolo Riddle."

Malfoy gave him a strange look before grimacing.

"That's not a wizarding name. How the bloody hell did a mudblood end up in Slytherin?" He turned away, disgusted, as the other boys around him laughed at him and whispered to each other. The older students narrowed their eyes at him before turning away, not even bothering to introduce themselves.

Tom sat without talking to anyone else for the rest of the meal.

"Look! There he is!" A Slytherin girl shrieked when he passed by in the common room, hurting his ears. "It's that mudblood that somehow made it in here."

The group they sat in laughed when he sat down in a chair across from them. Malfoy was among them as they started to jeer at him like they had for the past four months. He looked up for a second from his book to see the blond walking towards him.

"Hey Riddle! I bet your mom was lying about the father. I bet she let some guy shag her for a few coins like the slut that she is, without knowing that he was a wizard who was just using her!" They laughed again before he continued. "Not that it makes your blood any cleaner. Any wizard who shags some dirty muggle slut is just as low as they are."

Tom slammed his book shut before standing up and stalking out of the common room, out into the dungeon corridor. He ran up the stairs and into the front entranceway, running out onto the grounds, all the while willing the tears in his eyes to disappear.

He headed to the edge of the forbidden forest, stopping behind the open shed where the magical creatures for the classes were kept. Ungracefully falling down onto his behind, he let himself finally cry into his knees.

After several minutes of uncontrollable sobbing, he wiped his eyes off on his sleeve before leaning back against the hard wood.

His moment of peace was interrupted when the lower body of a female student almost collided with him as it turned to the back of the shed.

The girl stopped just before hitting him, and backed up a few paces to give him some space. He looked up and his eyes widened slightly as the face of the girl he had seen at the opening feast stared down at him.

"Oh, I'm sorry."

He snorted as she quickly turned away and walked quickly back to the school. Lifting himself off from the ground, Tom brushed the dirt from his pants. Turning to head inside as well, he stopped when the girl ran back to him.

"Um, I hate to ask, but are you alright?" He frowned at her before raising his eyebrows. "What do you mean?" She narrowed her eyes and her lips tightened, before she looked around to see if anyone else was there. "Well… Your eyes are red and your nose is dripping a bit."

He blushed as he quickly wiped his nose with the back of his hand. "I'm fine." He snapped at her, before brushing past her towards the castle.

"You…You're the Slytherin muggle born, right?"

Tom froze and glared back at her, walking back and gave his most intimidating glare at her, even though she was several inches taller than him. "Oh, so you found the mudblood crying and you thought you'd come and tease him, huh? I don't give a fuck what you stupid stuck up pure bloods think of him, I'm much better than the rest of you are!" He shouted at her and smirked slightly when she looked slightly scared.

"I wasn't trying to-" She started before he cut her off. "That's what they always say. You people make me sick."

He turned away from her and was about to walk away when he heard her speak softly.

"My parents are muggles."

His eyes widened, and he stopped, suddenly feeling slightly guilty.

They stood in silence for several minutes, neither of them sure of how to start up the conversation once more. Tom sucked in a breath and turned to face her, extending his hand out. She stared at it with slight confusion before looking to his face, her wariness visible.

"I'm Tom Riddle."

She smiled down at him softly and took his hand in a surprisingly strong grip.

"Meghan Nevine. It's a pleasure to meet you, Tom."

They parted ways then, and before he realized it, summer had come and it was time to leave.

He rested his head against the glass of the window in the empty compartment he occupied. A book laid open on the seat next to him, discarded after being finished. He sighed and pushed his fingers through his black hair, massaging away an oncoming headache.

The sliding door to the compartment clattered open and he glanced over sharply, a frown on his face, before recognition made him relax.

Sitting down across from him, Meghan clasped her hands in her lap and stared down at them. She had changed into her muggle clothes, like he had, and a small bag lay at her feet where she had set it down. She stared out the window and watched the landscape flash by faster than her eyes could follow. They sat together for a long period of time, before she shifted and stared at him.

"Did you read about Grindewald?"

He looked up at her and nodded. "He is evil. How could someone do something to so many innocent people?" She looked thoughtfully at him for a few minutes before replying. "I don't think he's evil."

His head shot up and stared at her as if she was insane. "How could you think that? After all he's done to the world?"

She shook her head. "Evil is a matter of opinion. From our side, what he is doing is terrible. But from his point of view and many other people, what he is doing is correct."

"That doesn't make it good."

"No" She shook her head. "It doesn't. But there isn't really anything called good or evil. He has power and he chooses to use it in a certain way. Some people also have that kind of power, but would never, ever use it in the way that it truly shows like he does."

He didn't answer to it, so she changed the subject.

"Will you have someone waiting for you when we get back to London?"

Tom tilted his face up to look at her, before replying slowly. "The matron will most likely send someone to take me back to the orphanage." He tightened his lips when her brows furrowed. He answered her unspoken question before she could ask it. "I've lived there for my entire life. My mother died giving birth to me after naming me after my father."

She bit her lip slightly and nodded, before looking at him questioningly.

"If you live in an orphanage, then how do you know that your parents are muggles?"

He chuckled slightly and stated to her the obvious. "Because it's a muggle orphanage. If I had a wizard parent then the ministry would have found me and taken me to foster with a wizarding family." He shook his head and looked out the window. "Besides, my name is so muggle like that it's almost funny. Except for my middle name."

"It could just have been a random name that your grandmother chose at the spur of the moment." She shrugged and he scoffed quietly. "What's your middle name?"

He looked up at her and smiled slightly. "Marvolo."

Meghan's eyes widened slightly and she thought about it for a second. "That is a very wizardly sounding name." He shrugged.

They stopped talking and sat in silence for a long period of time. After about an hour the skies outside darkened and small droplets began to hit the window pane, making the light reflect strangely onto the compartment's occupants.

She spoke up as the land outside began to change and become more populated, the tell tale signs that the journey was coming to an end.

"You know what you can do?"

He looked up at her, slightly surprised that she had spoken.

"Your mother named you after your father right? You should look for him in the records of students that graduated, you might find him. If you were born in London then chances are he went to Hogwarts."

Tom thought about it. He smiled and stood up as the train began to slow. She looked up at him and they both smiled.

Four summers passed.

The students in the corridor stopped and stared at him, awe in their eyes as he passed. Many a girl, and even a teacher, blushed and looked at him with longing, for he was more handsome than most men.

He smiled to himself, walking over to a small group of Slytherins who occupied a small alcove near the exit to the courtyard. The group, who had been laughing loudly, quieted as soon as they caught sight of him. The lead of the conversation swallowed as when a large, slender hand clasped him on the shoulder, a shudder running through his body.

"I expect you to keep to the rules this year, Malfoy." He smiled falsely, widening his grin when the pale blue eyes darted down to the prefect badge staring at him.

Tom knew that his new position was not the only reason that the students of his house, even the older ones, were so obedient towards him, though only one other person in the world was aware of his heritage. He was higher than all of them, for he was Tom Marvolo Riddle, genius, prefect, and most importantly, the final generation of the Gaunt family, descendant of the pure blooded Peverell family, and Salazar Slytherin's heir.

That year, he had decided, would when he would use his heritage to show the world the beginning of a new era. An era where wizards held supremacy over all non magical creatures, as they should. He would start by eliminating the poison that had begun to infect the young wizarding population.

Strutting towards an empty corridor, he quickly ducked into a girl's washroom, and walked towards a small broken sink.

Meghan had shed one tear during Myrtle's funeral. He asked, a week later, why she had cried for someone she had never known.

She said it was because someday when she had to, she wouldn't be able to.

Tom entered his second last year with a purpose in mind.

By the time he had graduated, he would have claimed the last of his inheritance from the Gaunt family, taken the next step to his leadership of the new era, and gotten the revenge for his life.

When he came to school wearing the Peverell ring, Meghan immediately took notice.

"Have you not heard the stories of the Peverell brothers?" She asked him incredulously. When shook his head, she quickly took him to the library and pulled out an old children's book. They read through the last story, and when he reached the part about the stone of resurrection, his gaze immediately went to the black stone that currently sat on his finger. However, Tom laughed at her when she said that it could be it, and that she shouldn't put so much trust in fairytales.

She became angry at him and left him alone with the book.

When the news report about the mysterious murder of the muggle Riddle family reached her ears, she had only stared at him sadly, as if she was watching him kill his father and last relatives right then.

That Christmas holiday, he did not stay at Hogwarts, but he did not go back to the orphanage.

He sat on his high backed throne in front of several dozen of his classmates and acquaintances. They all stared up at him in awe and reverence, each hoping that he would look to them and call them up to stand at his side. He would not oblige to any of them there.

Instead, Tom spoke to them clearly, his powerful voice and emotions spreading out to each of them. They shuddered and cheered as he spoke of a world where they would be in control. A world where the filth that had for so long kept them in hiding would cower in fear from their magic. The wizards would rule supreme.

One by one they came to him. They bowed at his feet, speaking of their undying loyalty to him, his cause, and the wizarding nation. They promised him their lives, and would do all in their power to make him rise to the top.

Pulling out his wand, he branded each one with his own mark. The sign that soon, the world would be theirs.

When he had finished, they all basked in the glory that was their new lord and master. Not Tom Riddle. But Lord Voldemort.

He created his first horcrux that summer.

No one had noticed the change but he, and that was only because it was inside him. He could feel his peaceful and merciful emotions diminish, and he found himself colder and harder. He knew himself that he had become more powerful, and that once this power was used to the extent of wizarding power, he would be unstoppable.

Only Meghan watched him lose his humanity in the process.

They spoke finally in the spring of his last year.

She had graduated and was working in the ministry as a registration officer for department workers. She spent her days watching a tired and dying population, brought down by work and the overbearing shadow that was the truth.

He finally received a letter from her, asking to meet in the park near London Bridge.

Tom found her sitting on a bench, watching people walk by with sad, empty eyes. She had made no confirmation that she was aware of his presence until after he had been sitting next to her for a half an hour. She spoke softly to him, as if she was afraid that if she spoke too loudly, she would be right.

"So this is no longer Tom I am sitting with, is it?"

He stared in shock at her, before she looked at him with eyes that by all means should have been crying. But no tears came.

Shaking his head, he turned his body entirely to face her, gently putting a hand on her shoulder. He realised she had lost weight. "What do you mean? I'm right here, talking to you." His breath caught in his throat when she looked at him, closed her eyes, and shook her head.

"You are not Tom Riddle. Tom Riddle is dead. All that is left now is Voldemort."

He stood up then and quite promptly slapped her across the cheek. She didn't flinch, but only stared to the side before looking down into her lap.

"Voldemort is Tom. We are one and the same. It is simply a name I am using to cleanse this world." He stood there in front of her and gently caressed her cheek. His jaw clenched when she took her own hand and lifted his off. "Cleansing by killing off people. You are not cleaning our world. You are only making it more filthy with your twisted ideals."

At that moment Tom became Voldemort, and she shivered slightly when his power surrounded her.

"I am cleaning the wizarding world from the poison that it has acquired through thousands of years of neglect and corrupt leadership. I will free us from the muggle filth and its offspring that has for so long impregnated our purity. Magic will make our world a better place."

She finally looked up at him and sighed.

"So you are killing innocent muggles and muggle borns."

He nodded and smiled. "Once they are eradicated, we will be able to stop hiding. You won't have to go to work everyday pretending that you are someone you are not. You will be free!" He laughed and clasped both of her shoulders, shaking them slightly. "Mudblood scum have caused our two worlds to shift even further to their control. If they are gone, the problem will be solved."

Meghan stood and looked him straight in the eye before wrapping her arms around his neck and hugging him tightly. She sighed, remembering when he had once been smaller than her. He had once been innocent, and happy.

"Right now I am not pretending." She pulled back and lifted a hand to his cheek, stroking it slightly. "You are pretending that I am someone else. You forgot, Tom Riddle, when you became Voldemort." She stepped back and lifted her bag to her shoulder.

"I am part of the being that you wish to destroy. Your ways have caused the deaths of my people and family, and you will be the cause of death for me."

His eyes widened and he stared at her in shock, opening his mouth for words that did not come.

"Goodbye Tom Marvolo Riddle. Should we see each other, it will be our last time."

She left him there.

The dark lord Voldemort stood on the platform above the hundreds of cheering wizards and witches. His death eaters stood behind him in their cloaks and masks, each smiling brightly behind them.

"Tonight, we show the world who rules."

They crowd below him erupted in screams and cheers to his words.

He lifted his wand to the air, and hundreds followed suit. It only took a whisper from his lips and the sky turned to expose the green skull, with his family sign staring down at the people who served it, and those that it would destroy.

Screams echoed across the town as his followers burned and killed their way through the people. Children cried for their parents who laid at their feet. Parents pleaded with the masked wizards to return their loved ones, and instead were sent to join them in the afterlife.

A young woman hurled herself at Lord Voldemort's feet, sobbing and screaming as he bore down on her with his wand extended.

"WHY? WHY? HOW CAN YOU BE SO EVIL?"

He stopped and in her saw the face of Meghan, telling him her truth about good and evil, almost a decade ago. He knelt down in front of the woman and gripped her face harshly, laughing at her as tears streamed down her face.

"There is no good or evil. There is only power and those too weak to show it."

She died with a flash of green.

His empire rose around him. His hundreds of followers turned to thousands. His enemies surrendered, died, or simply disappeared. It did not matter to him.

He had achieved all his goals but one. He only had to finish cleansing the world and he would be complete. He laughed hysterically as the fires rose, burning away the filth and scum of the old era.

The new one had begun.

Her letter came moments before the end.

Tom Riddle found himself sitting on a hospital chair next to the bed of someone who had told him they would never see each other after this last meeting. He now knew why.

His hand held her cold one as she stared at him softly. They did not speak. She looked out the window at the grey sky before her throat cracked and she whispered to him.

"A famous muggle poet once wrote this piece;

The world is crumbling  
It's rotting from the core  
Sustaining life above it  
Has become nothing more

The sky is no longer blue  
It's just a mindless gray  
It's put a damper on our souls  
That gets thicker every day

The people have lost hope  
They don't even care  
Living has become pointless  
And the sorrow is all they share"

She stopped and took a shaky gasp of air, and he clutched her hand tighter.

"What is it called?" He asked quietly, and she turned to him and shook her head. It took her a few seconds to regain her voice, but it was stronger and clearer than before. "She hid the poem and never published it. It was found fiver years after she committed suicide. It has no name, and the last section was damaged by water."

He stared at he sadly and he pushed some of her thin hair out of her face.

"Why did she kill herself?"

She smiled.

"Because she knew that her world could not be saved."

She started to cough and he quickly helped her sit up and let the attack pass. After several minutes he gently laid her back down, and she sighed softly.

"You cannot save this world, Tom Riddle. The poet wrote about this situation, and the last paragraph was destroyed because what she wrote will never happen. You can't do it. No single person can."

They did not speak after that.

He knew she was dead the next day.

He stood in front of her grave, several years after and, just like he had the day they had met, cried. His broken soul screamed as remorse filled his mind, but he stopped. He looked at the black stone on his finger and was suddenly urged to do as the Peverell brother had to bring back his loved one. He instead buried it in a box far away.

The words on the stone would haunt him for the rest of his life.

_I want to see a blue sky once more_

Sixty years passed, and for the first time since her death, Tom Riddle came back.

Voldemort left for good when the young black haired youth, who looked so much like himself at that age, sent the green spell flying towards him.

He was met with a strange pressure on his chest, and then there was nothing.

After staying in nothingness for an unknown period of time, he came to the conclusion that by some strange happening, he existed. He could feel his fingers and limbs, and felt air rushing into his lungs as he breathed through his nose. He opened his eyes and found that he could see.

Looking down at himself, he noticed that his limbs were much smaller than they had been when he had been alive, and that they were a healthy colour. He wore his old Hogwarts clothes. He also realized he was sitting.

His surroundings came to him quickly. A forest stretched out in front of, while he rested on grass. His back was propped up against a wooden wall.

'So I am back here. Shall I be forced to remember this place and her for the rest of eternity?'

He sat without complaint.

"Your nose is dripping again."

He looked up to see her, in her twelve year old glory, staring at him. He blushed like the eleven year old that he was, and wiped his nose on his shirt. She laughed lightly at him and sat down in front of him, before sighing.

"I've missed you, Tom."

He looked at her again and saw that she was crying. It brought his attention to the wetness that was spreading down his own cheeks. He cried together.

Once they had finished, he looked up to her and saw that she was looking at her lap like she used to.

"I'm sorry." She looked up at him and shook her head, smiling. "Is there anything I can do to make it up to you?"

She looked up at the sky and sighed, closing her eyes.

"I wish the clouds would go away."

He stood up quickly and laughed at the grey sky, before reaching down to a smiling girl.

Tom and Meghan held hands, and walked away.

_But take my hand  
Even if it's pointless we'll try  
Let's build up the crumbling earth  
And find the blue sky._

**-End-**

**-Please review!**

**Just a quick note: For people who have me on their favorite or alert lists, this is a bit different than what you most likely are used to from me. I'd like to point out the fact that if I find a career in writing, it wont be gay erotica novels. I write sad, emotional pieces about people. Not sex. **

**This was by far the most intense and complicated piece I have ever written in my entire life. I am quite proud of it and I hope that everyone else likes it!**

**The poem does not have a title, and is not actually written by a famous poet. You will not find it by looking it up very easily. It was written by me.**


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